Songs of the Past
by NatShinigami
Summary: After the well closed up Kagome ended up in London, looking for a change of scenery. There she met an old woman who knew what it felt to be left behind. Together they found something they thought lost in time and space: hope. First work on the 'Misplaced Souls' series.
1. Meeting

**Disclaimer:** I don't own either Inuyasha or the Chronicles of Narnia and don't look for a profit out of this. I do however own the souls of those who finish this sentence, so there is that at least.

Fear not dear readers! This time I come with a story already finished that won't suffer the Syndrome of the Dreaded - and Unpublished/Unwritten - Sixth Chapter. This will be short and to the point. It came to me one night out of nowhere but it fit my mood so I put it down as quickly as I could. I hope you enjoy this idea nearly as much as I do.

* * *

 **Songs of the Past**

 **First Verse - Meeting**

* * *

It was a cloudy and wet afternoon in London, with uniform light falling around everywhere making the lines of the world into something dull and cold.

Kagome didn't know what she was thinking by coming into a place that encompassed so well in its climate the feeling of desolation she lived with inside. She had come to this city so old and full of history hoping that centuries upon centuries of memories and experiences from a culture far from her own would somewhat make the trick and diminish the sharp pain that was her lost home.

When she had stepped back into Tokyo she hadn't been able to feel anything, either demonic or holy, but here things were different: the creatures of the unknown, their energy, unlike anything she had ever felt before, mingled between the human population. She could feel their auras brushing against hers, some kind, some curious and some unknowingly - like the one that had guided her to this park.

Even though the wrinkles marked her age she could see the beauty she would've been in her youth, with long silver hair and clear blue eyes. With that color combination, she resembled an Inuyoukai of the House of the Moon, she was what Sesshomaru's mother might have been had she been touched by time and exuded the warmth and kindness this woman did - she would have been surprised at the dignified and noble way she carried herself, had she not been aware that she was in a country where nobility was still pretty much a thing.

With a sure step and self-assurance, none of the young between them had she commanded respect, though she was only walking through the park. Kagome was able to recognize in her the grace of a former warrior, the forms of those who had seen battle, though what scared her the most on the second look was to see the exact same dull shine on her eyes that she saw in the mirror every morning.

The eyes of someone who had also lost her home.


	2. Contact

A few days after publishing I noticed that I hadn't specified the update schedule for this work. Every Saturday until finished you will find an update. If the fates are good nothing will get in the way and I might turn this into a series where Kagome gets to interact with people that aren't precisely in their world/time/dimension. I am also cross-posting this in AO3 where you can find me under the same username, and there is a chance that I might also post this in Spanish, as a friend of mine has expressed the wish to read this and it would be useless to make the translation for the use of only a person.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

 **Songs of the Past**

 **Second Verse - Contact**

* * *

She felt the gaze on her from afar with the senses that had never really dulled, even after all those years and a lifetime of not actually using them.

The person looking at her pointedly was a young woman, a petite Asian girl with hair as back as raven feathers and eyes as blue as the sky - she saw herself in for a moment, archer stance included and so ingrained that she knew from just that the girl had seen battle. There was an acquired power and self-respect in the way she stood, that of one who had endured difficulties and come out on top. And if she looked beyond the surface of her eyes, she could see the hardened gaze of those who had seen unnamable horrors.

But that didn't truly face her, after all she had lived long and seen more than most women. No, what was truly terrifying for her was to see the same haunted look she saw every day since she was twenty-one and her world had turned to ashes in the wind - the look of someone adrift in a raging storm because of a bad decision: despair, sorrow, and perhaps worst of all a deep an unshakable sense of regret brought by guilt. Something that even though she recognized and acknowledge, she couldn't find it in herself to shake it off.

Self-inflicted pain due to a wrong choice, or the outright lack of it that turned life into a thing to be endured.

Taking a desition she stepped forward towards the girl and smiled down at her.

"Hello, my dear. My name is Susan, would you like to share a chat over a nice cup of tea?"


	3. Lost Miko

As I've managed to complete another work, this is now officially a series! Yay! You have Mahotuskai No Yome to thank for that, I needed some sort of way to distract me from the distress the series causes me, and what better way to do so than to inflict distress onto the characters I'm working with?

Thank you for keep on with me and I really hope you like this one!

* * *

 **Songs of the Past**

 **Third Verse - Lost Miko**

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"And just like that I appeared back in my home and found that the well had closed... I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Her hand went up to clear her face of tears. This wasn't the first time she had told this story, however, she had always put on a brave face in front of her family, not wishing to weight on them more than she already had for three years. Now tough, before this kind stranger's understanding eyes she felt safe enough not only to tell a story that to most would be fantastical but to allow herself to feel the sorrow it brought to her in fully.

Susan, sitting in front of her, hummed comprehensively before setting her teacup down and reaching to put a comforting hand on the woman's.

"I know exactly what you mean. Not being able to say goodbye, to make amends, it's perhaps even more painful than the loss on itself"

Kagome lifted her head and looked at her with something akin to wonder, as well as confusion, in her face.

"So you do actually believe men? When I talk about time travel and youkai and... Don't you think that perhaps I am making this all up? Perhaps not even consciously but that it's all in my head?"

The elder's gaze took upon a pained quality and at the same time, it hardened in outrage.

"Well, you do have the scars to prove it and the experiences that come from your time in the Warring States Era, do you not? Why would you even doubt yourself? Not only I believe you, I also think that there is no way you could have made this all up with that amount of detail." Her eyes dropped down for a moment before she lifted them back to Kagome's, with the pain drowning out her recent ire. "How you deal with your loss it's entirely out to you, but whatever you do now, wherever you go on from her please heed my counsel: never, for whatever cause dare doubt that it was all real, that you really lived through the greatest adventure of your life."

The Miko nodded carefully at the forceful declaration, taking a moment to silently let it sink in before making a statement that hid a question with soft, hesitant voice.

"You seem to speak from experience."

The laugh that filled the room was so light and full of life that it was hard to think that it was an eighty-something-years-old woman it's master. For a second Kagome thought that perhaps she was in the presence of one of this continent's youkai despite her lack of youki, yet that thought vanished when the woman spoke again.

"Oh dear, let me tell you an old story about a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe..."


	4. Lost Queen

I totally forgot about updating yesterday - I had a hectic day for a weekend, now I'm just making time no to get to homework.

Fear not though! I am here with a new chapter!

I really hope you like this one!

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 **Songs of the Past**

 **Fourth Verse - Lost Queen**

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"My only option then was to try and move on, like I had done once before." A self-deprecating chuckle was punctuated by her sheepish tone. "Not that that had actually done anything for me in the past but I had no options left, and no-one who would even hear - much less believe my story."

Kagome grasped Susan's hand, thinking of nothing but offering back some of the comfort she had been given, but then the strangest thing happened: her reiki jumped on its own will, engulfing the old queen, fixing wrinkles and signs of old age and turning up a haunting image in front of her. She gasped, surprised at the beauty and light in those eyes the same blue as hers brought up by her new dress.

"It's this what you looked like when you were younger?"

Susan looked down at her blue and silver gown, memories assaulting her mind at the familiar cloth and cut, her tresses once again as black as raven feathers and falling gracefully to the floor. Lifting her hand to her head she felt the familiar weight and form of her old crown, daffodils and mountain ash bringing forth a small smile to grace her lips before she broke down in joyous laughter.

"This is the attire I wore to my coronation... Though the only time my hair was this long was just before I came back to England, so I guess my face is the one I had when I was twenty-seven."

Kagome nodded even while she was building up the courage to ask the question she had been asking herself since the pain had overwhelmed the joy, and she was curious to know that Susan the Gentle would say in regards to her own experience. When she finally did her voice was soft and quiet.

"Do you ever wish that it had never happened? That either the wardrobe had never shown your sister the way into Narnia... or perhaps that you had never come back to this world?"

The older woman seemed to have an answer at first, but then she closed her mouth and scrunched up her eyebrows in contemplation.

"Despite everything I never regretted going into Narnia, even though perhaps I should have - I realize now that once I was there and was crowned I forsook everything about my life here, the same thing I later did when I came back for good. It just doesn't seem fair now in hindsight, to ask of me - of all of us really - to put back time and time again our dreams and lives on hold for something we didn't even have the security of knowing if we were ever going back to those lives." The Miko could only nod and let a comfortable silence fill the void while she perused the answer that was given to her question, but before long Susan offered another. "As for coming back to this Earth... right after it happened I was so disconcerted at first - one second a Queen on a hunt, the next a twelve-year-old being lectured by an old man about the fact that we might go back when we least expected. And though he understood our story and treated us accord to our experiences going back home wasn't easy in the least... But I can't truly say I regret coming back either, here were my parents, here I met my husband and had my children who all grew up with stories of magic and wonder to be strong and kind adults - even against my own will I managed to be happy here, to find love and beauty in all despite my mistakes and my fallible human nature."

Another short silence before the old queen warped up her answers and gave her something more to think about.

"Perhaps what you should ask yourself is not if you regret it, but whether it was worth all what your feeling now. And keep walking forward, because now it's up to you to make your life here as worthy as the one you lead in the past."

* * *

Note: After I finished it I realized that _some_ of my own thoughts on the matter had seeped into Susan's speech. Then I realized it served the story well and changing it would only give me a headache - I had already compensated those _tendencies_ in one of the later chapters though, so we can say the equilibrium of the whole thing has not been altered.


	5. Over the Rainbow

Yay! A finished fic at last! Though there are still two epilogues to come, I could as well put the 'complete' stamp on this one...

The next installment in the series is already finished, though I haven't found more time to keep at it since College began again, so after that one is up it might take a while for this universe to keep expanding.

On a serious note due to the nature of this story and a personal happenstance this week, if you know someone, a friend even, who is going through a rough patch and happens to have depressive or suicide tendencies please keep an eye on them, support them as much as you can and listen to them. Try and help this people, as the world would be a dimmer, sadder place without them. Next time you stop to think it can be too late.

Past the serious note, I hope you like it, thanks for reading and following and see you on the other side!

* * *

 **Songs of the Past**

 **Final Verse - Over the Rainbow**

* * *

"Thank you for having me, for sharing your story, for... for everything really. Oh! And the tea!" said the Asian girl bowing respectfully to her host on her porch.

The elder Queen just smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, making her stand again and her own gratitude with one gesture. When she spoke there was gentle happiness in her voice.

"No, thank you for trusting me with your story and giving this old woman the pleasure of being understood once again. It would be lovely to speak to you again if you will have me."

For the first time in what seemed like forever since she was forced back from the Feudal Era Kagome felt her lips stretch into a painfully big smile, that was promptly answered by Susan's own. Unable to contain her excitement she hugged her.

"I would love that!"

She let the shocked woman go, and was about to give her final greetings and leave when the silver-haired woman took her hand and left a small paper with a phone number scribbled on it on her palm. Her own smile was a little bit mischievous and scolding when she spoke.

"And how did you expected to do so without a means of contact? Seriously the youth this days..." Kagome was sheepishly scratching the back of her head when her host wrapped her arms around her. "Thank you for accepting my offer. And Kagome." She separated a little and made sure to make eye contact with her before speaking the rest of her words from Narnia Queen to Shikon Miko. "Don't give up, your story is not finished yet."

When the two women parted the clouds did too, and the sun finally peaked allowing the Asian woman for the first time in her visit to truly take in the beauty of a rain-cleansed London. The air smelled like earth and ozone and she felt as pure as happy as she used to feel back in the Feudal Era.

This time when two pairs of blue eyes met each other there was a lightness and happiness to them that wasn't there before. And perhaps most important of all: for the first time in a long time, those pairs of eyes held hope.


	6. Encore - Sunlit Glade

First of the two epilogues. I hope you like it!

* * *

 **Song of the Past**

 **First Encore - Sunlit glade**

* * *

"It took you long enough to realize what you were doing to yourself. I am happy that you were able to help this young woman."

Back to an illusion of her youthful appearance Susan gave a soft smile at the deep voice behind her.

"Perhaps it was fate that held me here, perhaps I was meant to stay to keep our story alive and guide people like that woman back to the light."

She felt silky fur in the back of her hand and she couldn't avoid turning it to caress the golden mane beside her.

"Still, you were too stubborn for your own good."

She couldn't help to laugh at that.

"I stand by my choices, I'm way too old for regret right now. Besides, I bet everyone else is happy even without me there."

"They are, though they would be happier with you there" the words coming like a purr out of the giant feline's muzzle. "Will you come and be with them now?"

He was giving her a choice nobody had had this time, something none of the others had for either they believed blindly and died or did not and stayed her like her. It felt somewhat unfair, though she recognized the offer for what it was: a reward for her renewed faith and understanding of the situation they had been in. Susan turned her gaze to the true King of Narnia besides her and inclined her head in respect and acknowledgment of his intent before going back to gaze through the window.

"I think I will stay here for a while, after all, I promised Kagome I would see her again and I'm sure she needs me more than my siblings do."

His chuckle rumbled under her hand and a soothing, unconditional acceptance she didn't know she craved more than anything washed through her along with a sense of belonging to something greater again. She felt that after the longest absence of them all, she had finally come back home.

This time when the Lion dismissed her, she knew that this wasn't the last time she saw him. And most important of all: she had been forgiven.


	7. Encore - Moonlit Lake

I almost forgot to put this up. Next part of the series begins next week.

Second and last epilogue of this work! I hope you liked this and thanks for reading!

* * *

 **Songs of the Past**

 **Second Encore - Moonlit lake**

* * *

Coming back to Japan was something she needed to get closure and she knew it. After five years in England studying business and the offer of an internship in one of the world's most renowed enterprises based in New York she couldn't put it off any longer, least she never does it.

Her family received her with all the joy they had saved up in her absence, and now she was about to have a job interview with the head of the human resources department of one of the most important enterprises in all of Japan, to pass on the sabbatic semester she had taken and attain some experience while in her homeland. She was alone in the waiting room, and quite nervous yet excited for what was to be her next challenge.

A gasp pulled her attention from her nervous ruffling through her curriculum, and she landed her gaze on a tall man that looked at her in surprise and disbelief.

He was unusually tall for a Japanese man, and with a long black mane that was held in a ponytail at the nape of his neck that was even more unusual on a salaryman - tough considering that his suit seemed tailored and _very expensive_ , perhaps nobody would ever tell him that long hair on someone like him wasn't exactly proper. What stood out and took up most of her attention though, were his eyes.

She didn't have any right to talk about fellow countrymen having eyes that differed from the usual brown after all with her own blue orbs, but it was truly strange to see someone who seemed to hold fully Japanese ancestry with those sparkly green eyes...

And then she recognized the mischief shining on them and she had to thank the gods nobody else was in the room, for she would have never been able to contain herself even if there was someone there. She jumped at him and gave him a tight hug while screaming out his name in joy.

"Shippo!" was the only distinguishable word among her unceasing unpleasant barrage of questions about him and his life. She felt the concealment charm he wore fall and felt his youki caress her own reiki while his hair bled into red, his nails hardened into claws and a fang peaked from between his smiling lips between in a manner reminiscent of Inuyasha.

And all of sudden it felt like all of it, including the receding pain from five years ago and her bouts of tears had all been worthy for her to be able to see her kit as a grown-up man, and her heart felt like it was bursting in joy.

Nothing mattered right now, she was finally home.


End file.
